Friday, March 11, 2011

Chechnya Criticized For Imposing Islamic Dress Code on Women

Human Rights Watch yesterday released a report titled You Dress According to Their Rules: Enforcement of an Islamic Dress Code for Women in Chechnya (full text). Here is a summary from the text of the report:

This report describes violence and threats against women in Chechnya to intimidate them into adhering to a compulsory Islamic dress code. The documented attacks and incidents of harassment took place from June through September 2010, when the virtue campaign in the republic intensified. During that time, dozens of women were subjected to attacks by men, including law enforcement officials, in the center of Grozny, for not wearing a headscarf or for dressing in a manner which these men deemed insufficiently modest. While pressure on women seemed to become less aggressive after September the dress requirement remains a live issue and continues to be backed by high-level officials, including Ramzan Kadyrov.